She was a Rosie the Riveter during WWII

Lorraine Lively was in high school during WW II and got a working at the Goodyear plant in Los Angeles one summer, making her one of the iconic "Rosie the Riveter" working women of that era. She worked on the Lockheed P-38 airplane. Friends gave her this aluminum model of the P-38. She says of her experience: "I was glad it was part of the war effort because my brother was in the service and my dad was in World War I. I was hoping to do something for the benefit to win the war, get the war over."MICHAEL GOULDING, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER; ADDITIONAL TEXT BY THERESA WALKER, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Occupation: Worked 35 years with the state, helping disabled people rehabilitate their bodies and get jobs. Many of them were veterans. Retired as an office manager. Belongs to the American Rosie the Riveter Association.

During wartime: Spent the summer before her senior year in high school working at the Goodyear plant in Los Angeles, making gas tanks for the P-38 fighter aircraft. Her brother served in the Navy.

Watch Lorraine Lively share her expereinces - then and now - about V-J day.

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World War II dominated Lorraine Lively's high school years in Los Angeles. Her 15thbirthday coincided with the Japanese aerial assault at Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. Back then she was Lorraine Plumley.

Her brother served in the Navy, as did a high school friend, Bob Lively, who would later become her second husband. The summer before her senior year, Lorraine made gas tanks for the P-38 fighter aircraft at the Goodyear plant. The plant was close enough to her house that she could ride her bike to work.

She says the exultation she felt on V-J Day was matched only by the birth of her sister's first child, and when she married Bob Lively in 1965.

My sister was married and raising a family. So it was just me and my parents during the war years.

I was in the department where we made gasoline tanks for P-38s. There were 15 or so (layers) of different rubber that we put on.

I'd get my check (but) I didn't cash it. I'd just put it up on the dresser. And then, finally, at the end of the summer I went down and put them in the bank.

I had had (other) summer jobs, office-work type. But this was strictly for the war. It made me feel good to think I was helping with the airplanes.

Then, in my senior year, Traveler's Insurance came around interviewing, wanting typists. I passed that test – this was like on a Thursday and I started on a Monday. Graduation was a few days prior ...

We knew (the end of the war) was coming but we didn't know when. They (had just) dropped the bombs (on Hiroshima and Nagasaki).

(The insurance office) was a big room of us gals. We typed up insurance policies. Our supervisor made the announcement and it was utter chaos.

They were opening windows, throwing out waste paper baskets just full of stuff. We wouldn't throw the policies of course, but loose papers and stuff we had lying around. They closed down the office and we got out of there fast.

Everybody was so excited. I mean to think that it was finally over. I don't remember that I cried. I was just real happy.

I walked to where my mother worked. It wasn't that far, maybe three blocks. I (felt) like a fish going upstream when everybody else was going the other way. There was a lot of shouting.

(It was) just like New York when you see it on New Year's Eve; people just migrated out to the streets.

Lorraine Lively was in high school during WW II and got a working at the Goodyear plant in Los Angeles one summer, making her one of the iconic "Rosie the Riveter" working women of that era. She worked on the Lockheed P-38 airplane. Friends gave her this aluminum model of the P-38. She says of her experience: "I was glad it was part of the war effort because my brother was in the service and my dad was in World War I. I was hoping to do something for the benefit to win the war, get the war over." MICHAEL GOULDING, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER; ADDITIONAL TEXT BY THERESA WALKER, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Lorraine Lively was in high school during WW II and got a job working at the Goodyear plant in Los Angeles one summer, making her one of the iconic "Rosie the Riveter" working women of that era. She worked on the Lockheed P-38 airplane. She says of her wartime effort as a teenager: "I was in the drill team at school, we'd always have bond drives or stamp drives. You'd buy a book, like the S&H Green Stamps, you'd buy a war savings stamp and when it got filled you could go redeem it for a War Bond. They call them Savings Bonds now." MICHAEL GOULDING, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER; ADDITIONAL TEXT BY THERESA WALKER, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Lorraine Lively was in high school during WW II and got a job working on the Lockheed P-38 airplane. She describes the job: "I was in the department where we made gasoline tanks for P 38s. There were 15 or so plies of different rubber that we put on. Then the last ply that went on was a special one and that was another team that did that. Us novices didn't get to put that one on. They would take it to another department and that's when they'd start hitting it with a big old hammer, rubber. You could hear them all over the plant breaking it down. Plaster of Paris, that was the frame. We built it on that and then they had to break that all apart to get it out." MICHAEL GOULDING, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER; ADDITIONAL TEXT BY THERESA WALKER, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Lorraine Lively was in high school during WW II and got a job working at the Goodyear plant in Los Angeles one summer, making her one of the iconic "Rosie the Riveter" working women of that era. She says of being part of that WWII workforce: "There's not too many of us Rosie the Riveters left. We're dying off just like the boys. Rosie the Riveters, we were about the same age. So we're dying off too. But I'm going to hold off for seven years. I'm going to make it to 90. That's what my mother was." MICHAEL GOULDING, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER; ADDITIONAL TEXT BY THERESA WALKER, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Rosie the Riveter photo taken in 1942 depicts a woman reconditioning spark plugs. The caption read: Doris Duke who is 26, and a mother of one child, Corpus Christi, Texas. Mrs. Duke is a civil service worker in the A[ssembly] and R[epair] department at the Navy Air Base. Mrs. Doris Duke, who is 26 and a mother of one child, Corpus Christi, Texas. Mrs. Duke is a civil service worker in the A[ssembly] and R[epair] dept. at the Navy Air Base. HOWARD R. HOLLEM, LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
Rosie the Riveter photo taken in 1942. The caption read: Women are contributing their skills to the nation's needs by keeping our country's planes in top-notch fighting condition, Corpus Christi, Texas. Wife of a disabled World War I veteran, Mrs. Cora Ann Bowen (left) works as a cowler at the Naval Air Base. Mrs. Eloise J. Ellis is a senior supervisor in the Assembly and Repairs department. HOWARD R. HOLLEM, LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
Rosie the Riveter photo taken in 1942. The caption read: Painting the American insignia on airplane wings is a job that Mrs. Irma Lee McElroy, a former office worker, does with precision and patriotic zeal. Mrs. McElroy is a civil service employee at the Naval Air Base, Corpus Christi, Texas. Her husband is a flight instructor. HOWARD R. HOLLEM, LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
Rosie the Riveter photo taken in 1942. The caption read: Drilling a wing bulkhead for a transport plane at the Consolidated Aircraft Corporation plant, Fort Worth, Texas. HOWARD R. HOLLEM, LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
Rosie the Riveter photo taken in 1943. The caption read: Women workers employed as wipers in the roundhouse having lunch in their rest room. JACK DELANO, LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
Rosie the Riveter photo taken in 1942. The caption read: Answering the nation's need for womanpower, Mrs. Virginia Davis made arrangement for the care of her two children during the day and joined her husband at work in the Naval Air Base, Corpus Christi, Texas. Both are employed under Civil Service in the Assembly and Repair department. Mrs. Davis' training will enable her to take the place of her husband should he be called by the armed service. HOWARD R. HOLLEM, LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
Rosie the Riveter photo taken in 1942. The caption read: Assembly and Repairs Dept. mechanic Mary Josephine Farley works on a Wright Whirlwind motor, Naval Air Base, Corpus Christi, Texas. HOWARD R. HOLLEM, LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
Rosie the Riveter photo taken in 1942. The caption read: "Women in white" doctor Navy planes (motors) at the Naval Air Base, Corpus Christi, Texas. Mildred Webb, an NYA trainee at the base, is learning to operate a cutting machine in the Assembly and Repair Department. After about eight weeks as an apprentice she will be eligible for a civil service job in the capacity for which she has been trained. HOWARD R. HOLLEM, LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
Rosie the Riveter photo taken in 1942. The caption read: A rivet is her fighting weapon. Oyida Peaks, daughter of a Navy lieutenant, one of many women taking NYA training to become mechanics at the Naval Air Base, Corpus Christi, Texas. After eight weeks apprenticeship she will be qualified as a civil service worker in the Assembly and Repair Department. HOWARD R. HOLLEM, LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
Rosie the Riveter photo taken in 1942. The caption read: Oyida Peaks riveting as part of her NYA training to become a mechanic at the Naval Air Base, in the Assembly and Repair Department, Corpus Christi, Texas. HOWARD R. HOLLEM, LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
Rosie the Riveter photo taken in 1942. The caption read: Riveter at work on Consolidated bomber, Consolidated Aircraft Corp., Fort Worth, Texas. HOWARD R. HOLLEM, LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
Rosie the Riveter photo taken in 1942. The caption read: Drilling on a Liberator Bomber, Consolidated Aircraft Corp., Fort Worth, Texas. HOWARD R. HOLLEM, LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
Rosie the Riveter photo taken in 1942. The caption read: More and more women are filling important jobs in the Boeing Aircraft Company's factory on the Pacific coast. Standing is Katherine Popovich, with June Kirkpatrick, who are riveters. ASSOCIATED PRESS
Rosie the Riveter photo taken in 1943. The caption read: This is a photo of Gladys Griffin at her job helping build Liberty ships in Sausalito, Calif. ASSOCIATED PRESS
This 1940s poster of "Rosie the Riveter," was introduced as a symbol of patriotic womanhood. NATIONAL BUILDING MUSEUM
Norman Rockwell (1894-1978) Rosie the Riveter 1943, oil on canvas. NORMAN ROCKWELL

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